Yaffe: Harper gives monarchy more than its due

Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun06.07.2012

Prime Minister Stephen Harper (left) stands with Queen Elizabeth as she unveils her portrait at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday. The portrait was painted by Canadian artist Phil Richards (second from left). Governor-General David Johnston looks on (right).

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As Canada’s prime minister, it is Stephen Harper’s prerogative to jet across the pond with wife Laureen and their two children to partake in Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee festivities.

However, Harper’s five-day jaunt to London this week, albeit with a side trip Wednesday to Paris to meet France’s new leader François Hollande, has greatly exaggerated the importance of the monarchy to Canadians.

For the PM to quit the country for five days at a time of fierce debate over the government’s omnibus budget bill is at least a little questionable.

On Monday, 500 organizations and businesses from one coast of Canada to the other blacked out their websites as part of a Black Out/Speak Out campaign. They were protesting the Conservative government’s recent criticism of environmental organizations and a budget bill so complex it cannot possibly receive parliamentary scrutiny appropriate to a democracy.

While Harper may be a staunch monarchist, he needs to face up to the reality that Canadians increasingly are growing lukewarm to the notion of having a British monarch function as Canada’s head of state.

A June 2010 Ipsos Reid poll found two thirds of Canadians believe the royals shouldn’t have a formal role in Canadian society. The poll reported that 58 per cent of respondents want Canada to end ties to the monarchy once Elizabeth’s reign ends. Fully 62 per cent want Canada’s head of state to be a made-in-Canada Canadian governor-general.

Harper, meanwhile, has reinstated the “royal” assignation to Canada’s navy and air force, and hung a big portrait of the Queen at the entrance to the Foreign Affairs Department headquarters. None of which will make Canadians any more enamoured of the monarchy.

Let’s be clear. Waning support in Canada for a British queen or king as head of state is no reflection on the royal family itself.

Its members appear to be remarkably dutiful people who more than earn their keep in Britain. They’ve helped build a British brand that pays off big time in tourist revenues. They act as patrons of innumerable charities around the British Isles, trekking to endless ribbon cuttings and ship launches and tea parties.

They do nothing similar in Canada, of course, because — while the monarch automatically is Canadian — members of the royal family don’t live here.

They don’t even keep a personal residence in this country. Because they’re British.

And this, doubtlessly, is the basis for the growing desire in this country to have a Canadian head of state.

Again, to be clear, most folks admire the sitting monarch who at 86, stood on a barge Sunday for 80 minutes in the cold and rain, to watch her subjects float by on the Thames as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Not to mention Philip, who is 90 (and was hit by a bladder infection and hospitalized on Monday).

That said, while many are in awe of Elizabeth’s 60-year reign, let’s face it: all she has had to do these many decades is keep breathing and stick to a rigorous royal schedule.

She has had full job security and unbelievable perks throughout the six decades she has served.

Where are the public celebrations for the long years of service by single mothers who manage to raise their children to be good citizens despite overwhelming obstacles?

But returning to the real issue at hand, a Canadian head of state: It is time for Harper — instead of trotting off to London for fancy luncheons and meetings with the Queen — to start helping Canadians find their way in a complex debate about a head of state who might best represent this country.

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